What to build?

by VorteX and Acwder

Constructing different buildings (there are 14) is one of the basic actions in Alliances At War, and one of the first you will encounter. Perfecting your build strategy and customizing it for every possible situation may well give you the advantage needed over your many enemies. Every building is vulnerable to destruction in some way, though buildings like homes tend to be targeted more frequently than others. To aid you we share a couple of standard builds used by most alliances.

Growth build

This is an ideal build for safe growing. Remember to use markets to explore efficiently.

• 30% Homes (45% if Mori Hai, 15% if Balrog, 0% if Dwarf)
• 7% Farms (11% if Uruk Hai, 0% if Spirit)
• 7% Markets
• 15% Academies *
• 1% Guilds
• 6% Yards
• 34% Mines (use Farms instead if Light Elf)

* Running more academies than you have land to support is wasteful. Generally speaking you wont need to run 15% academies below 2000 acres. At much larger acres, your land must have some churches and guardhouses.

Research Build

A crucial part of Alliances At War is research. It depends on your alliance to build and maintain it. The ideal research build maximizes the amount of Labs. Use the same build as for growth, but build Labs instead of Mines/Yards.

• 30% Labs *

* After 30% labs researching starts getting an increasing penalty. Spirits usually keep +5%.
* Labs should not be built after you've invested and purchased your research points, as they increase the decay rates.

War builds

Alliances At War is a war game, and therefore it is natural that some alliances go head–to–head in a war full of action and fun. But how should a tribe build in such times?

There are 3 war builds: Thief, Mage and Attacker. Each has its own use, and each has its own building strategy.

Attacker

• 30% Homes (Same exceptions as above)
• 8% Farms (Same exceptions as above)
• 20% Weaponries
• 8% Markets
• 25% Academies (or maximum allowed if you are below 2450 acres)
• 9% Guilds

Note: If you are being targeted with mages, take down some guilds and/or weaponries and convert them to churches. The guilds are there so as to be self–sustainable. If you're being targetted by thieves, build guardhouses. In either case, it is strategical to run an initial offensive to more effectively kill the opposition before they are able to fight back.

Mage

• 30% Homes (Same exceptions as above)
• 7% Farms (Same exceptions as above)
• 7% Markets
• 25% Academies (Or maximum % possible if smaller than 2450 land)
• 31% Guilds

If you are dealing with a high mage level enemy, run more Academies and fewer Guilds. If you are dealing with a low mage level enemy, run fewer Academies and more Guilds for more fire power. Templars need not run any academies.

Thief

• 30% Homes (Same exceptions as above)
• 7% Farms (Same exceptions as above)
• 7% Markets
• 15% Churches
• 5% Academies
• 1% Guilds
• 35% Hideouts

If you are being heavily damaged by spells, it is advisable to raze some Hideouts and build more Churches/Academies.

Turtle build

• 30% Homes (Same exceptions as above)
• 7% Farms (Same exceptions as above)
• 20% Guard Houses
• 20% Churches
• 8% Markets
• 13% Academies
• 3% Hideouts

Remember to use Thieves Trap and cast Seal of Deflection. It's possible to build additional Homes to counter enemies trying to raze them, though this also increases the damage dealt to homes. You may consider building walls instead of guardhouses in the event that the alliance attacking you is not using thievery (and vice versa for mages and churches).

Last updated: August 2010